


After Thanksgiving

by MsCaptainWinchester (rons_pigwidgeon)



Series: Supernatural ABO Bingo 2017 [9]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alpha Dean, College Student Castiel, College Student Dean, Cuddling & Snuggling, Family Drama, M/M, Omega Castiel, True Mates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2019-01-20 08:09:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12428544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rons_pigwidgeon/pseuds/MsCaptainWinchester
Summary: Dean came home from Pontiac a depressed alpha missing the True Mate he may never see again. But Castiel has other plans, and he's not letting his family get in the way of them.





	After Thanksgiving

**Author's Note:**

> This was written to fill the Free Space in my SPN ABO Bingo card. 
> 
> This story is the sequel to Thanksgiving Interrupted, and will probably not make much sense if you haven't read it.

Dean looks up from his text book and freezes. Anna is standing in his doorway, arms crossed over her chest with a look that would give Furiosa a run for her money. “True Mates, is it?”

Dean pushes away from his desk and stands, holding his hands out in supplication. "I'm sorry. I should have told you right away, but I didn't think it would go over well. And it didn't."

Anna walks right up to him and pushes him back in his chair with more force than he thought her tiny body could expend. "You asshole. My little brother spent the entire rest of the weekend curled up in the fetal position, in heat, convinced that his mate had abandoned him. Do you know how gross that is?"

Dean's stomach sinks. He shouldn't have let their parents kick him out without at least saying goodbye. Cas probably thinks Dean left because he doesn't want him. "Is he okay?"

Anna looks like she wants to slap him. "No, he's not okay, you moron. He's devastated. He's an innocent little omega with zero experience with any of this." She points at him, face turning pink in emotion. "You knew that. Now you have him convinced that he can only be happy with his One True Alpha, like that's a fucking thing. You're gross and wrong, and I don't want to find out you have been anywhere near my family ever again. Got it?"

Of course she doesn't. Dean fucked up. Royally. It's going to take a long time and a lot of groveling to dig himself out of this hole, if he even ever can. "Got it," he says, voice thin and strained. He drops his eyes to his textbook because he can't look at her anymore.

She isn't finished talking. "You're lucky I'm not planning on telling the entire floor what you did."

Dean laughs, rough and warped so far from anything resembling humor that it turns his stomach. "Should I thank you?"

Anna actually does slap him then, her nails scratching angry red lines across his cheek. "Fuck you. I thought you were a good guy. You're disgusting."

She stomps out before he can reply, not that he has anything to say while the Cas-shaped hole in his chest expands out to swallow him whole. His cheek starts to sting just as the front door slams hard enough to raddle the windows. He rubs at it, staring at the fading carpet without any detail.

Footsteps walk down the hall and another redhead is standing at his door, this one barefoot and far less angry. "What'd you do to piss her off? Flip off her parents at the dinner table?" Charlie asks, leaning her shoulder against the doorframe. He appreciates that she doesn't just barge in, but he might need the way cleared in case he loses his breakfast.

"I fucked up," he says, voice rough and broken.

"What'd you do? You look like hell. Did she slap you? Jesus, she left claw marks on you," Charlie says, crossing into the room to take hold of his chin and move his face to the side to examine the damage.

"I kissed her little brother and threw him into a surprise heat."

"You what?" Charlie pulls back, anger warring with the disbelief on her face.

Dean focuses on the pattern of her pajamas pants. "He's my True Mate."

"...Shit." Charlie collapses onto the edge of his bed, dropping her head in her hands. The silence is telling, but eventually she scrubs at her face, and ever the loyal friend, takes a deep breath and sits up. "Okay. I have questions. But first, how do you know this?"

"His smell. He smelled like home."

"Like your mom and dad's house?"

"No, not... it's hard to explain. He smelled like he belonged to me. Like... you know all those corny greeting cards with sayings like 'home is wherever you are'? It's like that. Sort of."

"And he had the same reaction?"

"He tried to say something right away, but I didn't think her family would believe us. I should have let him say something."

"You were right about them not believing you."

Dean snorts, but there's no humor to it. "Yeah, I was right. But they might have been more receptive if it had been Cas saying something, right when we met." Dean stares at the formulas he has scrawled in his notebook and shakes his head. "It doesn't matter now. They don't want me to see him, and I don't have a way to contact him even if I wanted to."

"Do you not?"

"I'm not good enough for him, Charlie. You should see their house. And he's so beautiful and innocent. He doesn't need to be saddled with me for the rest of his life."

He can feel Charlie's eyes boring into the back of his head. "So you aren't True Mates?"

Dean turns a sharp stare at her. He thought she believed him. "What do you mean? I told you we were."

"Then you are good enough for him? Isn't that what being True Mates means? A lot of the stories have been romanticized, yeah, but I'm pretty sure the whole point of having a True Mate is that you're exactly what your mate needs in life and vice versa."

Dean opens his mouth to retort, but nothing comes out.

“Look, timing is obviously an issue, and I’m not saying you should jump into bed with the kid. But like, if you really are meant for each other, there’s not harm in texting him, is there?”

“I guess not.”

"So if I were to track down his cell number, you would maybe want to have it?"

Dean hesitates. He aches to talk to Cas with every fiber of his being, but is it really a good idea? He should wait until Cas is older. Maybe he doesn't want a mate, True Mates or not. He's still so young... "I wouldn't throw it away."

"Alright then."

-

Charlie sticks a post-it to his coffee cup the next morning, a phone number and email address written in neat block letters. Charlie's handwriting is usually barely legible, so she must have spent time to make sure Dean didn't misread the information. He buys her lunch and lets he talk his ear off about a gorgeous beta in her database management class. When he gets back from class, he places the post-it in the middle of the blank wall above his desk, a beacon of hope in his dark little universe.

He doesn't use it. Every time he goes to type Cas' number into his phone, he's reminded of how young Cas is and the cold, hard stare of his mother as she shoved his duffle into his chest and told him to leave. Cas deserves better than to be chained to a stupid alpha from the wrong side of the tracks and three dollars to his name. Dean only got into college because Sammy forged his name on all the paperwork and got him a good scholarship. Cas has a big, bright future ahead of him. The last thing he needs is to be tied down to an alpha before he's even graduated high school.

Instead, Dean buries himself in his work. He goes to class, spends hours in the library studying. He drinks too much and hustles pool on the weekends for cash. When Charlie asks him how Cas is, he doesn't answer her. When anyone else asks how Thanksgiving with Anna's family went, he doesn't answer them either. And when Christmas rolls around, he goes home to his sad little house with his sad little family and spends most of his time in his room.

-

Spring limps in on sopping feet and a darkness that matches Dean's mood. They spend an entire month in overcast skies and the kind of rain that feels like they've all been dumped in a gothic novel. Later Dean will blame the torrential downpour for not noticing the smell as soon as he walked in the building. It hits him like a wall when he walks into his apartment. His roommates know better than to keep pie in the house, which can mean only one thing.

"Some kid came looking for you while you were at work. He wouldn't leave, so I made him hang out in your room," Victor tells him, nodding towards the hallway leading to the bedrooms.

"Cas?" Dean mutters, stalking to the open door to his bedroom and finding his mate huddled on his bed with his knees pulled up to his chest. He looks soaked through to the skin. As soon as he sees Dean, he's up and rushing Dean, wrapping his arms around Dean's middle and burying his face in Dean's neck. Dean is baffled, even as his hands automatically go up to hold his mate. "Cas? How are you...?" His eyes fall on a bulging backpack and suitcase tucked into the corner of the room next to his desk and his stomach sinks. "What's going on?"

"I wanted to see you. I know my parents told you to stay away from me, but I'm eighteen now, and I finished high school. They can't tell us what to do anymore."

Dean pulls away enough to cup Cas' face in his hands and force eye contact. "Did you run away from home?"

Cas huffs an impatient noise, eyes narrowing to a pinched look. "Obviously. No one in my family believes that we're True Mates. Which is bullshit because my great grandparents were True Mates, so they know they exist. They just want me to stay an innocent little omega forever. I'm not doing that. I want to be with my mate."

Dean doesn't know how to respond to that. His inner wolf is jumping up and down with happiness, barely resisting the urge to scent mark Cas until no one can question who he belongs to, but human Dean is cautious. "Does anyone know you're here?"

"I told my best friend I was leaving, but not my parents. They've basically had me on house arrest since Thanksgiving. I haven’t been allowed to go anywhere but school and work. They think you brainwashed me. I know they threatened you, and I'm sorry about that. I tried to call you, but my mom found your number in my phone and confiscated it. They have my internet usage monitored at home and revoked my internet privileges at school and the library, so I couldn't find you online. So I decided to come here."

Dean can't wrap his head around all that. They were lucky if their dad was home three days in a row, let alone grounding them or restricting access to anything. His version of hands-on parenting was... different. "How did you get my number?" he asks, needing to focus on something.

"I stole it off Anna's phone. And I saw that you have mine. I'm sorry I never answered or replied to messages you sent. I haven't had my phone since the day after Thanksgiving." He points to the post-it note still stuck to the middle of his dingy white wall. It's spent the last six months taunting him, but how can he tell Castiel that?

"I was too nervous to use it. Anna made it clear she didn't want me to contact you."

"Fuck Anna. You're my mate. We have a right to talk to each other. When you didn't come back from the store, I thought my heart was being ripped out of my chest. I couldn't get out of bed for three days, and it had nothing to do with my heat. I was furious when I found out my mom kicked you out. She had no right."

"She did, though. I shouldn't have kissed you, or slept in your bed that night. You were underage, and I took advantage."

Castiel pulls away with a sharp look. "You did not take advantage of me. I'm not some limp noodle of an omega who doesn't know their own mind. Maybe we should have waited until you'd broken things off with Anna, but we were dealing with a new situation. Hormones were involved. Strong ones. You were doing the right thing. You were going to get my parents' permission to start courting me. If I had reasonable parents, we would probably already be half-way to mating now."

"That's not... You have to tell your parents where you are, Cas. They're probably worried sick."

"Serves them right. They let me wallow in rejection for a full month before they told me they kicked you out of the house. They let me think you didn't want me. Do you know what that felt like?"

Dean doesn't like the answer, but Cas is right. If he's an adult, he should be allowed to make his own choices. "What about school? Are you moving in here with me? Aren't you set up to go to Illinois State in the fall?"

"We can figure that out. Together."

"I'm not letting you quit school to be with me."

"I didn't say I was planning to. But I'm not in school now, and ISU doesn't start until August. For the moment. I want to be with my mate. If you'll have me."

Dean snorts, burying his nose in Cas' damp hair. As if he would ever tell him no. They're practically strangers still, but Dean can already tell Cas is going to have him wrapped around his little finger for the rest of their lives. "You can stay as long as you want, sweetheart."

"Thank you, Alpha." He lifts his head up to Dean's, kissing him with a smile that transforms his face. Dean's heart melts.

He pushes Cas’ wet hair out of his eyes and pecks his lips again. “Come on. Lets get you dried off and into some warm clothes.” He presses a kiss to Cas’ forehead and steers him towards the bathroom. Once he has him bundled up in soft pajamas—his, at Cas’ insistence—they curl up on the bed together and talk.

Later, Dean introduces Cas to Charlie, Victor, and Benny, and they all eat dinner in the living room with the game on. It's peaceful and nice and so much better than anything Dean has ever thought he deserved.

When they go to bed that night, Cas is tucked tight against Dean. He falls asleep content to have his mate in his arms.

He should have known it wouldn't last.

-

There's a loud pounding on the front door the next morning, forceful enough to rattle the pens on Dean's desk. He wakes up warm, but confused to be interrupted so early on a Saturday. There's a body tucked tight to his side, long limbs wrapped around him like an octopus. He lies there for a long moment, petting Castiel's hair and living in his comforting scent. Footsteps stomp down the hall past his door—Benny, it sounds like—and the front door is wrenched open with a curse that's definitely Cajun.

"Is he in here?" comes Anna's voice, sharp and angry, edged with just a bit of panic.

"Who?" Benny asks, voice muffled a little with sleep and confusion.

"My brother. My mom just called to tell me he didn't come home from work yesterday, and when she checked his room, most of his stuff was gone." She apparently doesn't wait for an invitation, because Dean can hear her stomping past Benny and into the apartment. He sits up just as his bedroom door is forced open, and Anna bursts in. She stops when she finds what she’s looking for, Cas curled up against Dean and still mostly asleep.

Cas makes a disgruntled noise and presses his face closer to Dean’s chest, his nose flattening against Dean’s ribs before he starts to really stir. Dean’s just glad they kept things chaste the night before and are both fully dressed.

“Castiel, what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be home. Mom and Dad are worried sick,” Anna says, ripping the blanket off of them and attempting to haul her brother out of bed. Cas flails in protest, falling off the edge of the bed in the process and landing on the floor with a loud OOF.

“What the fuck? Anna? God, what time is it,” he mutters, rubbing at his face. He clearly hasn’t grasped what kind of shit they’re in yet.

Dean swings his legs over the side of the bed and helps Cas to stand. “How about we go make some coffee and talk about this?” he asks Anna.

She glares at him. “Or I could cut your balls off for hiding him like this.”

“What are you talking about? I wasn’t hiding him. He came to see me, so I let him stay. I’m not turning away my mate. If anyone’s been hiding him, it sounds like your crazy family has been. House arrest? He’s not allowed to have a cell phone? His internet is being monitored like he’s in fucking prison? And you want to yell at me?”

Cas’ eyes are still squinted in half-sleep confusion, but he puts a hand on Dean’s arm. “Thank you, Dean, but I can speak for myself. I’m not hiding here, Anna. I came to see my mate, who I was barred from seeing by our over-protective parents. I’m eighteen now, and I’ve finished school. If I want to spend time with my mate, they have no right to stop me. And neither do you.”

“No one is trying to put you under house arrest, Castiel, but you have to be reasonable. Dean is clearly too old for you. And this True Mate thing? It’s bullshit. True Mates are a myth. Dean is sick, and he’s trying to manipulate you for his own gross reasons. He isn’t your True Mate. He’s just the first hot alpha who’s shown you attention since you presented. Don’t fuck your life up over him.”

Sleep disappears from Castiel’s expression mid-way through her speech, and now he’s glaring at her with vicious intent, the same glare she’d given Dean when she showed up at his apartment after Thanksgiving. It had filled Dean with dread and defeat then, but on Cas, it’s all kinds of hot. “I am not some naïve child who bats his eyes at the first alpha he sees. I knew the moment Dean stepped into the house that he was my True Mate, and nothing you can say will ever change my mind about it. Dean makes me feel safe and protected and cared-for. He is mine as much as I am his. I am not letting anyone keep me from him again. Do you understand me?” He snatched onto Dean’s hand, squeezing it like a vice. Dean holds back a wince and squeezes back.

Anna looks between them with a calculation bordering on panic. “This is insane. I’m calling Mom and Dad.”

“Go ahead. I’m not leaving until Dean tells me to.”

“Not gonna happen,” Dean says. Cas turns to smile at him briefly before glaring at his sister again.

Anna crosses her arms over her chest. “And what about school?”

“We’ll figure it out.”

They stare at each other for a long, tense moment. “I’m still calling Mom and Dad. If you’re serious about this, then you need to talk to them about it.”

“I did talk to them about it. Dean tried to talk to them about it. Dean had a whole plan. They wouldn’t listen.”

“Oh, and what was Dean’s genius plan, other than to cheat on me and sneak around behind everyone’s backs?” Anna’s glare swivels to Dean again.

Dean hesitates, unsure whether or not it would be wise to tell her. “We were going to wait until after the holiday was over so we didn’t fuck it up. I knew your parents weren’t going to believe us, and I thought your brothers might try to kill me. I was going to tell you on the way home from Thanksgiving, and then send your parents a formal request to court Cas.”

“And in the meantime you slept in his bed and kissed him so much he had beard burn the next day?”

“Hormones got in the way. That was my fault. When we woke up the next morning to my surprise heat, he didn’t take advantage of me. He risked getting caught so he could run out and get me heat suppressants. He could have claimed me then. I practically begged him to. But he didn’t.”

Anna doesn’t seem to have anything to say to that. Which is good, because Dean’s starting to feel like they’re talking in circles. Dean scratches at the back of his neck with the hand not gripped tight by Cas and shuffles in place. “So, I’m gonna go make coffee and start breakfast going. You two can uh… talk or something.”

“I’m going to help you make breakfast,” Cas tells him, following him towards the door. Anna trails behind them, looking uncomfortable and still a little angry. Dean decides to let her stew. He lets Cas do the coffee stuff since it’s set out on the counter and starts pulling out pans and ingredients for breakfast. Anna takes a seat at the island and watches them, fiddling with her phone like she might call the Shurleys at any moment just to spite her brother.

Benny comes back out glaring at her when the coffee starts bubbling, followed by Victor who just looks confused by the whole situation. “Why is Dean’s ex here?” he mutters as he elbows past Benny for the coffee.

“I’m right here,” Anna tells him, flat stare on him.

“Hence my question.”

“She stormed in this morning to bitch at me for running away from home,” Castiel explains, shoving a plate of food in Victor’s hands and pointing to an empty sport at the breakfast bar.

“Figures there’s some kind of drama,” he mutters under his breath, taking the seat next to Anna and digging into his food.

“I think I was justified. I can still call Mom and Dad.”

Cas stares her down, plucking her phone from her hand and unlocking it without looking away from her. He fiddles with it a moment then lifts it up to his ear. Dean can hear the line ringing, then a woman answering. “I am in Kansas with Dean. I’m not going anywhere until school starts again. I’m eighteen. You can’t tell me no.” He hangs up to squawks of protest and hands the phone back to Anna. “There you go.” He turns back to make himself a plate as if that’s that. Dean isn’t sure whether to be turned on or worried.

The phone starts ringing again immediately, and Anna answers to shouts on the other end. Victor wasn’t wrong about the drama, but in the end, Cas doesn’t budge. Not when his parents show up. Not when his brothers show up. Not until the day he has to move into the dorms.

Dean drives him, nervous because he won't be close to his omega for a full year while he finishes his undergrad. A lot can happen in a year, and ISU isn't known for fair treatment of omegas. He stays with Cas until the last possible hour, waiting until it's time for Cas to go to bed for his morning class.

In the end, even with all Cas’ protests about not wanting to be separated from his mate, it's Dean who doesn't want to let go. Cas walks him down to his car and kisses him compliant, wrapped up safe and warm in his sweatshirt despite the warm weather.

"It'll be alright, Alpha. You'll come see me next month, right?"

"I'll be here."

"And I'll call you every day. Probably more than once a day. You'll text when you get in so I know you made it home safely?"

"Of course, sweetheart."

"Get going, then. It'll be time to come back before you know it." He leans up on tip-toe to kiss Dean again, smiling and smelling fresh and happy. Dean hugs him close, reluctant to let him go. His bed is going to be so cold when he gets back.

"I love you," he murmurs into Cas' hair, a little surprised at himself for saying it even as the words leave his mouth.

Cas beams at him and kisses him again. "I love you, too. You'll be safe for me, won't you?"

"Anything for you." He kisses Cas' forehead and scents him one last time.

"Good. Now get going. You have class tomorrow, too. And that's the whole reason we're doing this, isn't it? No point if you flunk out."

Dean agrees, though not happily, and lets Cas shuffle him into the car. Cas presses one final kiss to his mouth before he shuts the door on him. "I love you, Alpha."

"Love you, too, sweetheart."

And then Dean's pulling away from the curb, and Cas is standing in his rearview mirror, looking small and so fragile swamped in Dean's sweatshirt. It takes everything in Dean not to stop the car and quit school right there. But he doesn't. And when Cas calls him after class the next afternoon, gushing about his professors and all the new people he met, it's good. Really good.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a third story in this series planned and intend to start it after I finish two other Bingo card stories. I will get a Bingo, you guys. I will. Even if I end up almost filling the entire fucking card to do it.


End file.
